[Free Article] Grixis Control -- the Best Deck in Vintage?

[Smmenen]

http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=3150

A description of the deck I played this weekend, card choices, and my thoughts on the Vintage metagame.

Check it out. 

[hitman]

How does this deck reliably beat Oath of Druids?

[Smmenen]

I tested against Oath and faced it in tournament, and have pretty soundly defeated it.  In the top 8 I went 2-0 against it in the quarter-finals. 

You use Drain and Force as the front line, and protect them with Flusterstorms.  If they actually resolve an Oath, your plan is just to rush assemble Key Vault.  This deck is actually quite fast.   If you fear that matchup, you can sb in Cage or other hate. 

[hitman]

With Goblin Welder in the deck, why is the fourth Jace or Tezzeret better than Gifts Ungiven?  Also, is Lotus Petal better than a fifteenth land against Shops?  What I gather from your article is that the extra accelerants are for Shops but Petal seems poor in that matchup?

[Smmenen]

That assumes Goblin Welder is in the deck instead of Gifts.   For the list of tactical advantages I bulleted in the article.  I would play Gifts if I had one more slot.  But I don't think, generally speaking, Gifts 1 is better than Jace 4.  
EDIT: Petal isn't actually poor against Shops because it brings T1 Drain online and helps cast T1 Bob.  
Post-Board, helps cast T1 Ingot Chewer / Bolt under a Golem.  In that respect, it's a 2-1, just like Force against Golem (which you'd play any day of the week)

[hitman]

Fair enough.

[Smmenen]

just to emphasize that point, you would gladly Force a T1 Golem, which cost 2 cards from hand, including the Force.

If you are on the draw, and play:

Land, Petal, Bolt or Land, Petal, Chewer, it's the same effect.  

One thing I would actually consider cutting the 4th Jace for would be Top - just to scale your curve.   Although I admit Gifts is insane -- I just don't know if you can justify it against Shops.  If I had 2 Welders, I would probably play a Gifts.  

EDIT: One other thing I did not mention, but is huge, is that:

Petal, Mox, Academy casts T1 Jace.  

you really want to have as many ways as possible to cast T1 jace.

note that Mox, mana Vault, Academy also casts T1 Jace.  

2ND EDIT:

I never really thought about it until now, but I guess I'm finally using Jace like I used to use Gifts in Meandeck Gifts: accelerate it out as quickly as possible.  Before I played 4 Gifts in Meandeck Gifts, most of the Gifts lists used 2-3 Gifts.  MDG was the first list that really focused on 4 and did so in an aggressive way.   My Cobra deck, and now this, both are designed to accelerate out Jace aggressively. 

[bluemage55]

How Shop-infested would your meta have to be, before you consider cutting down on Flusterstorms in favor of Mana Drain?  Or is the Shop matchup simply secure enough post-board that this isn't necessary?

Also, no Sensei's Divining Top?  Do we have enough topdeck control from the 4x Jace that we don't need SDT or Preordains to protect ourselves from our own Bobs?

[Smmenen]

Remember, I have zero Mental Misstep.  My deck has fewer dead cards against Shop than almost every other blue deck.  And, yeah, I never even had a game where my life was tenuous. 

[vaughnbros]

I expect Grixis Control to continue to be the dominant strategy in Vintage. It has the best combination of Dredge, Workshop, and blue matchups in the format.

I agree this seems to be the most well rounded deck going forward.  Possibly a home for the new unrestricted burning wish too.

How Shop-infested would your meta have to be, before you consider cutting down on Flusterstorms in favor of Mana Drain?  Or is the Shop matchup simply secure enough post-board that this isn't necessary?

Also, no Sensei's Divining Top?  Do we have enough topdeck control from the 4x Jace that we don't need SDT or Preordains to protect ourselves from our own Bobs?

Remember, I have zero Mental Misstep.  My deck has fewer dead cards against Shop than almost every other blue deck.  And, yeah, I never even had a game where my life was tenuous.

What about thoughtseize over a couple copies of flusterstorm? If your life is never in any real danger the 2 life lost isn't a big draw back and thoughtseize isn't dead at all against workshops.  It's easier to counter than flusterstorm, but seeing your opponents hand and being able to grab bobs, snapcasters, and jaces seems like a big plus.

Also if your going to stick with 4 flusterstorms any thoughts of adding a copy or 2 of nivmagus to a list like this?

And one last question with the inclusion of both welder and bob.  Why Blightsteel colossus over something like Myr Battlesphere?

[bluemage55]

Remember, I have zero Mental Misstep.  My deck has fewer dead cards against Shop than almost every other blue deck.

I'm under the impression that typical modern blue decks run fewer Flusterstorms when they have Mistep, so they usually have the same number of dead slots at something like 2x of each.

I'll assume that the point you're making, though, is that you have a strong Shop matchup already.

And, yeah, I never even had a game where my life was tenuous.  

Sweet.

[Smmenen]

I expect Grixis Control to continue to be the dominant strategy in Vintage. It has the best combination of Dredge, Workshop, and blue matchups in the format.

I agree this seems to be the most well rounded deck going forward.  Possibly a home for the new unrestricted burning wish too.

How Shop-infested would your meta have to be, before you consider cutting down on Flusterstorms in favor of Mana Drain?  Or is the Shop matchup simply secure enough post-board that this isn't necessary?

Also, no Sensei's Divining Top?  Do we have enough topdeck control from the 4x Jace that we don't need SDT or Preordains to protect ourselves from our own Bobs?

Remember, I have zero Mental Misstep.  My deck has fewer dead cards against Shop than almost every other blue deck.  And, yeah, I never even had a game where my life was tenuous.

What about thoughtseize over a couple copies of flusterstorm?
If your life is never in any real danger the 2 life lost isn't a big draw back and thoughtseize isn't dead at all against workshops.  It's easier to counter than flusterstorm, but seeing your opponents hand and being able to grab bobs, snapcasters, and jaces seems like a big plus.

I answered this question under the section in the article under the header "4 flusterstorm," where I described why I included 4 Flusterstorm. 

Also if your going to stick with 4 flusterstorms any thoughts of adding a copy or 2 of nivmagus to a list like this?

Nivmagus may be Vintage playable, but not in this deck.  I would test Nivmagus in something like RUG Delver with 4 Flusterstorm.

And one last question with the inclusion of both welder and bob.  Why Blightsteel colossus over something like Myr Battlesphere?

To borrow Kevin's phrase, this has become a 'divisive' topic in the vintage community

Brian Demars is absolutely of the opinion that Battlesphere is better.   I am of the opposite opinion.   While I definitely understand the relative merits of Battlesphere:

1) Actually castable
2) Hardy to disrupt in some ways
3) Weldable
ETC

I prefer the raw speed of BSC, especially given where Dredge is now.   Since GD Cage was printed, Drdge has become slower and weaker to BSC, and BSC gives me the best chance of winning that game 1 scenario on one swing.

[serracollector]

I would play Gifts if I had one more slot.  But I don't think, generally speaking, Gifts 1 is better than Jace 4.  

So does this mean Jace TMS needs restricted or Gifts needs unrestricted ?  When your leaving out one of the most broken tutors ever for another card u can run 4 of at the same CC, and actually saying its better, it says a lot. Me and several friends have talked about this many times, how comparable Gifts and Jace are, and that we also, in general, find jace to be the more powerful of the 2.

Anyways, the article was great, and I agree with you on 99% of it. 

I have to ask, if the meta were more MUD would your run pierce over Fluster?  I absolutely love fluster, and its course over the blue games, but I really miss pierce vs Oath/MUD, sometimes its a hard call for me personally. 

This deck reminds me of....Steel City Vault with bobs and jaces instead of draw 7's/Gifts.  Which seems like a good evolution.  Jace is just so powerful, and bob is ripe for the meta due to Jace.

Good article. Good job. Keep it up.

[Smmenen]

Steel City Vault LOL.  I had forgotten about that combo deck.  

Just because I think the 4th Jace is better than the 1st Gifts in here doesn't mean that Jace is a better card than Gifts -- it just means that in this deck, given its construction and synergies, I prefer Jace here.  Dark Ritual is a better card than Rite of Flame in most decks, but if you are accelerating out Empty the Warrens, then Rite of Flame might be better.  You see my point?  Context matters. Unrestricted, you can build a deck around Gifts.  Restricted, you really can't.  

Glad you enjoyed my article.